Happening
by Anne Bowman
Summary: Fi takes an unplanned, nightmarish road trip with Jack, Clu, and Annie. Rated R for language and a little bit of non-explicit violence.
1. chapter 1

Disclaimer: Is my name Disney? No. And I'm also not affiliated with any of the sources of the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. That should clear up any confusion and the need for disclaimers now and later, right?   
  
Author's Note: So I got to thinking about the movie The Doom Generation, which I haven't seen in a really long time so I was pretty blurry on most of the plot. Then I got to thinking about what would happen if you replaced Amy, X, and Jordan with Annie, Clu, and Jack. Then my twisted imagination came up with this, which isn't quite what I started out with. It deviates pretty much entirely from the movie with the exception of a couple of basic settings (the mini-mart) or minor occurrences (people constantly mistaking Annie for someone else, the beheading-by-shotgun), since I forgot most of the plot and I don't write sex scenes. :)  
  
Rating: R for language and stuff.  
  
~~~~~  
  
"This is not happening!"  
--Scully, _The X-Files_  
  
It was exactly 3:20am when the car roared into our driveway, stopping so fast the whole body lurched forward and lunged back again before the driver and passenger doors swung violently open. I was still awake at this hour, of course, and had been typing furiously when I heard the brakes whine. At this I paused and leaned over the computer desk to look out the window. The car had been abandoned by the time my eyes adjusted to the darkness outside, its doors still splayed open. I could hear a faint melody emanating from somewhere, too. I paused and contemplated the best course of action.   
  
But this cognition process was interrupted by a loud repetitive banging on the front door, so hard the hinges protested. "Police!" a male voice yelled. I walked slowly to the stairs in the dark as the banging continued. Aunt Melinda met me in the hallway and told me quietly to stay put while she investigated, flipping the light switch on as she made her way downstairs cautiously. She opened the door just a little and said, "Yes?" Then she opened the door all the way with a little relieved giggle. "Just kidding! Hey, Fi's aunt!" Clu greeted her, hugging her fiercely as Annie pushed past them and right up the stairs at me. She grabbed me by the arm and dragged me into my room before I could object. I just stood there while she raided my closet, tossing things into a black bag she had carried inside. "Hi?" I said finally, testing the water.  
  
"Hey," she replied, continuing to pack the bag. Then she zipped it up and issued what would be the first of many sharp commands: "Let's go."  
  
I followed her downstairs more out of curiosity than anything else. Clu was explaining the situation to Aunt Melinda. "I just don't understand," she persisted. "Molly sent you here to pick up Fiona?"  
  
"Yes ma'am," Clu smiled. "We're sorry that we got in so late, but, well, I was trying to drive carefully, you know."  
  
"But why didn't she call me?"  
  
"She probably just forgot. She's a little..."--here he made a "cuckoo" gesture with his hand--"...these days, you know. But I'm sure she _meant_ to do it," he said sincerely.  
  
"That just doesn't sound like--"  
  
"We're ready," said Annie, grabbing my hand and leading me downstairs. "Sorry it's so late," she apologized and giggled. "Fi and I have tons of catching up to do! See you later!" She dragged me outside and I offered a feeble wave to Aunt Melinda, who tried to get out a goodbye before we were gone. Clu gave a little bow and a wave and followed us outside, closing the door behind him.  
  
Annie's grip was more forceful than I remembered. She handed my bag to Clu and opened the passenger door and got into the backseat. Clu sort of pushed me into the passenger seat and closed the door, locking it with a goofy smile. I heard the trunk lid squeak open and felt the bag land on the floor of the trunk. He closed it gently and then climbed into the driver's seat and slammed the door. He started up the car too fast, so the engine made a loud screeching sound before acquiescing and backing out of the driveway. He shoved the gearshift into drive and sped off.  
  
"Okay, I'm officially freaked out," I said. "What is going on, you guys?"  
  
"Your mom sent us to come and pick you up," Clu explained.  
  
"But she didn't call or anything."  
  
"Well, like I said," he raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "It's really not that surprising. We're just following orders, man."  
  
"It just seems strange that she didn't call."  
  
"Stranger things _have_ happened," said Jack from the backseat, and Annie, in the midst of applying a copious amount of eyeliner without a mirror, snickered. I looked back in surprise. Why hadn't he come inside? Why hadn't he said anything? Well, fine. I could be that way too. "Hey," I greeted him indifferently. He didn't respond, and instead began or resumed strumming the guitar strapped over his shoulder, playing the melody I'd heard from my room.   
  
"I didn't know you could still play like that." I made a weak effort to draw him out.  
  
He shrugged but didn't stop.  
  
"Are you writing songs?"  
  
"Sometimes he does," Annie answered for him.  
  
I couldn't put my finger on what was going on, but this all seemed overly peculiar. "I didn't know you did that, either," I tried to smile at him.  
  
"Yeah, well, there's a lot about me you don't know," he replied, mimicking my smile but with a hint of viciousness, if you can believe that.  
  
"Is there something wrong?" I asked them all.  
  
"No," said Clu, nicely. "We're just so happy to see you."  
  
"How's college?" I turned my attention toward him now, trying to make it feel like a regular conversation between him and me.  
  
But he was having none of that. He just glanced at me sideways and gave a little grin. I heard Annie snicker again, so I took a deep breath and turned all the way around this time. "So, what about you? Are you still writing songs?"  
  
"No, I've been busy," she answered with fake sincerity, capping her eyeliner abruptly and looking over at Jack.   
  
"Oh. That's too bad," I said.   
  
The two of them laughed and I turned back to face the front. I heard him say: "Yeah, Annie, that _is_ too bad. What happened, your spirit animal run away?"  
  
"You are _such_ an asshole."   
  
I could picture the crooked grin he gave her and then I started hearing sounds I definitely did not want to be hearing. I flipped the radio on and turned the dial until it finally found a Spanish-language station, and then I leaned my head against the window, pretending to be asleep.  



	2. chapter 2

"There was a definite suggestion that, deep inside, he knew this was not really happening.  
It could not be happening because this sort of thing did not happen.  
Any contradictory evidence could be safely ignored."   
--Terry Pratchett, _Jingo_  
  
  
I woke up, startled by the lack of noise and motion. The car was empty and I peered outside the windshield to find the sun rising and competing with the light of a neon sign advertising Jo's Mini-Mart: drinks * ood * candy * gas * cigs * irewood * maps. I wondered why the others hadn't bothered to wake me up when they stopped. I felt around in my pockets for some folded ones, then went ahead and walked inside. I saw Annie standing in a petulant stance with her arms folded.  
  
"Damn it," Annie said. "Why couldn't you stay in the fucking car?"  
  
And then I really saw what was going on. The woman behind the counter was wielding a pretty big shotgun that was aimed directly at Annie and Jack in the candy aisle behind her. His hands were in the air. A larger man in a mini-mart uniform that matched the woman's had Clu's arms bent at odd angles behind his back.  
  
I closed my eyes and looked again. The woman behind the counter had short blonde hair and resembled Irene. The man holding onto Clu resembled Ned. But that was impossible. What a strange coincidence. "What's going on here?" I asked the woman.  
  
"This lowlife friend of yours is trying to steal from me again and I won't have it," she said with a Canadian accent that was eerily reminiscent of the woman to whom she was so physically similar.  
  
"I'm sure she's sorry," I offered. "We'll just leave now. Everything will be all right. Just put the gun down."  
  
She didn't, of course. "What happened?" I asked Annie.  
  
"We told this crazy bitch that the money's in the goddamn car but she won't let us go get it."  
  
"Well, I could go," I said.  
  
"Brilliant fucking plan," Annie rolled her eyes at me. "She knows you're with us."  
  
"Just relax, sweetheart," the woman said to me. "We don't have any complaint with you."  
  
"You don't have any fucking complaint with me either," Annie protested.  
  
"You're in more trouble than you know, Cherry," the woman seethed. "You just wait until I tell her you're back in town."  
  
"Bitch, I _told_ you I don't know who you're talking about."  
  
"Shut up," the woman said, shifting her gun to aim at Annie more directly. I got a good look at her nametag for the first time. "Irene?"  
  
"Oh, you can read," she said sarcastically. "Considering that you're a friend of hers, that is surprising."  
  
I glanced over at Clu. "Ned?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Okay, you guys, I don't know what's going on here, but I'm going back to the car until your little game is over." I turned to walk away and I heard the gun cock. Then I heard Ned scream and I turned to look, but it was already over by the time my eyes focused. Clu bit Ned on the shoulder by some miracle of contortion and Ned, incensed, loosened his grip. Clu fought with him and Irene swung the gun over at them. Annie lunged toward her and, agitated, she fired. 

I closed my eyes but I could hear Ned's head separate from his body. As I opened the door, pulling as instructed, I thought I heard it land with a squishy thud somewhere on the tile, but I didn't look back again. I would swear I heard his voice, speaking in tongues, before the door clicked closed. I walked quickly to the car and got into the passenger seat and waited, with my eyes closed, no witness to whatever else would happen in there.  
  
It was some time later when the driver's door finally opened and Clu climbed into the backseat first, then Jack, then Annie snapped the driver's seat back and climbed in.   
  
"But you're only 15. Or 13? Anyway, I could drive," I suggested anxiously.  
  
She ignored me and started the car tentatively, then peeled out of the parking space and out of the lot. I turned around to look at Clu and Jack and noticed a fair amount of blood on Clu's hands and Jack's shirt. I glanced at Annie. A few drops had landed on her face. "What did you guys do?" I asked suspiciously.  
  
"Nothing," Annie snapped.  
  
"Nothing," Clu said more gently. "I got hit, that's all. Relax. It'll all be fine."  
  
I turned around to face front again, squinting in the obscene sunlight, and then: "I think I should go home now."  
  
"We are going home," Clu pointed out.  
  
"I don't mean there. I mean back to Aunt Melinda's. Because I'm starting to hallucinate, you guys," I could hear the desperation creeping into my voice as I gripped the door handle, prepared to unlatch it and plunge onto the shoulder of the road and take off running. "I--I would swear that back there "  
  
"Nothing happened," Annie snapped, this time turning her head to look at me before she repeated it again. "Nothing fucking happened. And we are going home, and you are coming with us. Okay?"  
  
"I just really want to go back to Aunt Melinda's now," I whispered. "You can drop me off anywhere. I'll hitch-hike if I have to."  
  
"You're not going anywhere, sis," Jack finally spoke up from the back. "Just relax. You'll feel better when we get home."  
  
Annie jerked the wheel and we turned abruptly into the parking lot of a motel, advertised on the neon sign as the air ax Motel. I assumed they meant Fairfax, after the apparently very small town I'd seen listed on those mile signs on the highway. After she checked us in, she drove the car straight forward to park in front of room 6. She handed me the room key, attached to a triangular orange keychain, winked, got out of the car, and disappeared. I shrugged and got out too, unlocking the door. No one followed me. I left the door just slightly ajar and flopped down on one of the beds when I realized: two double beds and four people. Ew. Someone was so going to be sleeping on the floor. I was willing to volunteer rather than face the ramifications of that decision on Annie's part.  
  
I flipped on the TV. Nothing but static, so I turned it back off and closed my eyes, hoping for sleep to ride up on a white steed and relieve me from this bizarre situation. My abstract prince was uncooperative, so I was stuck playing possum again when Jack finally entered the room a while later. He went straight into the bathroom and I heard the bathwater running. It occurred to me that in the dark silence of the room, I would have to listen to every move he made in there through those thin walls. I flipped the TV back on and turned the static up higher, then rolled over and squeezed my eyes shut again. Then I remembered the sleeping pills I'd grabbed off my nightstand during Annie's invasion of my room and tossed into the bag. Who had the car keys?  
  
I stood up with the intention of knocking on the door and asking Jack, but hesitated. Better to leave him to whatever he was doing. Instead I headed outside and called for Annie and Clu. We were evidently the only guests at this motel tonight, so I yelled as loud as I wanted and wandered the lot. Then I heard a tell-tale whisper, a giggle. As much as I hated the prospect of what I might find, I followed the sound. And I found them, together, and I closed my eyes. They took no notice of me, muttering into each other's ears words I was glad I couldn't hear. Okay. Never mind. 

I headed back toward the room and found Jack, wrapped in a towel, leaning against the doorframe. He didn't notice me until I came closer, at which point his brow furrowed and disappointment briefly flickered across his face before he backed into the room and slammed the door behind him. I ran to the door and knocked hard. 

"Jack! I just need the car keys!" I pleaded. After a minute, the door opened an inch and the keys dropped onto the cement. Fine, I grumbled silently, and got into the car. 

Instead of retrieving my bag and then having to go through the whole door thing again, I decided to climb into the back of the car. I huddled on the relatively cold leather backseat, abandoning all hope of sleep arriving gallantly to save me. What the hell was going on here? Was I going absolutely crazy?


	3. chapter 3

If I can endure for this minute  
Whatever is happening to me...  
The darkness will fade with the morning  
And that this will pass away, too.  
--Helen Steiner Rice  
  
  
But sleep did come, though it wasn't much of a rescue. The cool seat quickly absorbed my warmth, and the untempered heat from the sun made the inside of the car a near inferno. And so I slept, sweaty and restless, for minutes or hours. It was impossible to tell. The sun was still shining when knuckles rapped the window glass and I really didn't know or care whether it was later that day or morning the next. 

I moaned and opened my eyes, hoping to see the twins or Melinda or the computer or the inside of a jail cell, anything but this car and that sweet face smiling and waving at me through the window. I sighed and unlocked the driver and passenger doors. Clu climbed into the driver's seat and Annie swung open the other one. She jerked a finger toward the parking lot, meaning for me to get out and let her in, which I did. Jack slid in beside her and I snapped the seat back and got into the passenger seat, slamming the door hard. 

No one said anything at all as Clu softly pushed the car into gear and guided it away from the motel. It was as if they were afraid of offending me, or perhaps recovering from a recent argument amongst themselves. I laid my head back and prepared to play possum again to avoid conversation. But Clu called my bluff. "Come on, Fi," he coaxed. "Loosen up. Get into it."

"Get into what?"

"This, man. The classic American road trip."

"The classic American road trip involves leaving a trail of dead bodies behind you?"

"There was only one dead body," he pointed out seriously.

"Yeah, whatever," I snapped.

He retreated inward for a couple of minutes, just driving silently. Then suddenly he looked toward me with an extraordinarily charismatic smile and reached for my hand. I pulled it away and his expression rapidly darkened. "Man, Seattle has sucked the fun out of you," he said, shaking his head.

"Maybe she misses somebody," Annie mused from the back.

"A boyfriend?" Clu proposed.

"A girlfriend," Annie suggested.

"How about it, Fi? Tell us who you're missing," he teased.

I wasn't quite sure how to respond. Maybe that's why it happened. Regardless of the cause, suddenly there was a body stretched out in the road before us. I yelled for Clu and grabbed his arm as he swerved hard and the car lurched sideways.

Again, minutes or hours could have passed from the time I blacked out to the time I woke up, but when my eyes did open, I was lying flat on the dirt beside the stalled car. Annie was reclined on the hood, leaning her head back and laughing. Jack faced her, and they were talking in frighteningly low tones. I turned my aching neck to look for Clu or the body in the road and I found them both. Clu was kneeling before the body and poking it with a stick in various places.

I tried squeezing my eyes shut and opening them again, but my surroundings stubbornly remained the same. Despite my body's protestations, I pulled myself to my feet and walked over to the body. "Shouldn't we do something?" I asked, loud enough for the others to hear too.

"We are doing something," said Jack.

"About the body?"

Clu sounded indignant. "What do you think _I'm_ doing?"

I sighed and folded my arms over my chest, glancing down the road in both directions. Not a soul in sight. "Okay, well, _I'm_ going to walk toward the next exit and get some help for the body."

"Geez, Fi, show a little compassion. She's a person, not just a body."

I kneeled beside him and took a closer look so I could better describe her to whoever I found. She was flat on her back and very distinctive in appearance. Her fluorescent blue wig had separated from her head just a little and telltale mouse-brown tendrils escaped. She was wearing a bright blue vinyl outfit over a blue fishnet body stocking. And no shoes. Specks of blue glitter between her eyelashes glinted in the sun. I shook my head at the absurdity of this vision in blue and walked away from the others with my head down, as fast as I could manage. 

After a few minutes of pounding a trail down the shoulder of the road, I heard footsteps behind me that I didn't bother to acknowledge, but maybe I slowed down a little so he could catch up. I could hear Jack and Annie talking behind us. He ran backwards beside me and said, "Hey, I'm sorry, I was just kidding. I know you're compassionate."

I just looked at him. "I don't _care_ about that. I just want to get out of here and away from you people."

"Fi, I'm hurt," he said, and I believed he truly was, though it was often hard to tell.

"I don't want to talk about it." I tried to walk faster, but it was pointless. My legs are short. It's truly a curse.

But he got the hint that I was at least attempting to outdistance him, and fell back into step with the others. We went on like that for a while until suddenly the screeching of car brakes and a slammed door. I stopped and turned, as did Jack and Clu. Annie faced forward, facing me now.

"Shit!" A female voice called. "My God, it's really you, isn't it?" She was short and wiry, with thin dishwater-colored hair, skimpy clothes, and big dark sunglasses.

No one responded, but it was pretty clear which one of us she was addressing.

"Cherry!" she slurred. 

"For the fiftieth fucking time," Annie said through gritted teeth, "I'm. Not. HER!"

"Ha ha," the woman replied. "Right. Well, you just wait until I tell her you're back in town!" And then she threw her head back and let loose with a hideous hyena laugh that wracked her entire body. I turned around and kept walking. Eventually I could hear the others follow, and the car squealed away. I didn't want to know who Cherry was, or the connection between that woman and the Irene doppelganger from the mini-mart. The one thing I did want to know is: who would be interested to know that "Cherry" was back in town, and why?


	4. chapter 4

We're not scaremongering   
This is really happening   
-Radiohead  
  
  
We made it to the next exit as night was falling. Annie had skipped ahead to walk with me while Jack and Clu lagged behind, entangled in yet another intimate conversation of which I really wanted to avoid the details. "Okay," I said as we seemed to come upon a town of sorts. "We should find a police station now, so we can tell them about the dead body and the mini-mart and that crazy lady on the road."

"No," Annie replied firmly. "We should get a drink." She started to head off decisively toward a nearby bar with a large blinking neon sign. I had to run to catch up with her.

"You're 15," I objected. "Or 13! It doesn't matter. You can't go in there."

She rolled her eyes. "Do whatever the fuck you want. You have no idea how much I don't care."

"Fine," I said, a little hurt, and began to walk in the opposite direction. The boys followed her, of course. I walked that way for a minute or two before I began to notice the proliferation of motorcycles parked on the street and the number of bikers roaming around the street. I turned and ran after them again. "Wait up," I called.

We entered in a kind of pack with her as our leader. She strode confidently toward the bar. I pulled on her arm and hissed in her ear: "It's not like they're going to serve you."

She ignored me and flashed an ID at the bartender before ordering a drink. "Want something?" she asked me with a slow grin. 

"No!" I said righteously.

"Suit yourself." She seemed genuinely amused.

The boys ordered drinks too, and then Clu decided he wanted to play pool, so he and Jack set up a table. Annie lounged nearby, nursing her drink, just watching. And I stood in the shadows, a nervous observer. The boys had barely begun their game when it was interrupted. A small group of bikers led by one very familiar-looking blonde young man in leather pants approached the table. Clu and Jack abandoned the game and backed away slowly. 

"We don't want trouble," the leader assured them. 

"Carey?" I whispered from my spot, and his eyes flicked toward me before returning to Annie. 

"We just want Cherry."

Annie slammed her drink down on the table. "All right, I'm starting to get pissed off." She stepped toward Carey menacingly and poked him in the chest for emphasis when she insisted very slowly, as she had on the road, "I. Am. Not. HER!"

He just laughed and began to sing. "She got the way to move me, Cherry. She got the way to groove me. Cherry baby!" She glared. "Oh, come on, we had some times back in the day, didn't we?" More glaring. He dropped the casual tone. "You really can't win now. I don't think I'll ever figure out why you came back here. Me? I wouldn't have looked back, ever. But then," the grin was back, "I wouldn't have betrayed everyone who loves me, either, now, would I?"

She growled.

"Look, she knows you're back, and you know that's why we're here, so why don't you do everyone a favor and just give yourself up?"

Never one to follow the wisest course of action, Annie instead swung at him with a fist and missed. He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the ground. She kicked and flailed and grunted, but it was no use. With his free hand, he gestured at the bikers, who took care of Clu and Jack when they made a feeble attempt to protect their woman. 

I knew it was no use, but I tried anyway. "Don't you recognize me? Come on, Carey, you're his brother."

"What is that, some kind of hippie thing?" he asked. "The family of humankind, love one another, all that?"

I just sighed. 

"Whatever," he said dismissively to me, and then to the bikers: "Bring her too." I put my hands up in a surrendering gesture and followed them outside as they dragged Clu and Jack along.


	5. chapter 5

"This is my happening and it freaks me out!"   
--Beyond the Valley of the Dolls  
  
  
"Cherry!" a very familiar voice called out as the motley group approached. Carey set Annie down in front of the woman, who was dressed identically to the dead girl, except her ensemble was black and she had very tall stiletto boots on. 

"So glad to see you again," she addressed Annie nicely before baring her teeth in a smile that can only be described as utterly vampiric in nature. "Thank you, boys. You can let them go now." 

The bikers paused and shoved Jack and Clu into standing positions before them. They remained in place, ready to fight attempts at resistance, which seemed unlikely. Carey crossed by them and took what seemed to be his assigned position behind the woman who, apart from the get-up, bore an uncanny resemblance to my mother. 

Somehow this failed to surprise me. Maybe two days ago I would have been shocked, but now I was just biding time until it was all over. At Carey the woman--I couldn't think of her as "Mom," really--smiled sweetly before turning her attention back to Annie. "You really thought you'd get away with it, didn't you?"

"Get away with what?" Annie asked innocently. 

The woman approached her slowly and stopped mere inches from Annie's face. "Stealing from me."

"I don't know what you're fucking talking about!"

"Remind her," the woman said, nodding at the bikers, two of whom stepped out of line and toward Annie. 

I could hear one of them whisper in her ear: "It's good to have you back, Cherry." He punched her in the stomach and she doubled over, cursing and spitting. At this point, it's true, I might have previously objected and tried to remind them all of their real-life roles, but I had tired of this and decided to simply watch the scene play out. 

"First you took the money," the biker said. Annie started to rise up and object or deny again. But he repeated his previous action, and she was down before she had a chance to think about it. "Then you disappeared." And again. "And now you're back." And again. He backed off, having completed his task.

"Thank you, Angelo," the woman said. "So, where is it?"

"Where is _what_, you psychotic bitch?"

The woman nodded at the biker again.

"No, no, no," Annie said hastily. "I get it. The money. I hid it in the trunk. It's in our car out on the highway."

The woman clucked sympathetically. "That's too bad. See, I was hoping you'd bring it back to me and then we could all be one big happy family again." She cocked her head and brushed a hand over Annie's hair. "Oh well. This will be fun too." She gestured for Carey to come over. He leaned toward her and she whispered something in his ear, at which he grinned and approached Angelo and whispered in his ear. Then Carey took over his guard position while Angelo and another biker went back inside the bar. They emerged a minute later with a very large pair of sharp silver scissors. 

The bikers prepared Jack and Clu for the ritual, with which they were clearly already familiar. As was becoming my most common practice, I turned away and closed my eyes.

"Sure you don't want to tell me the truth this time?" the woman asked, mournfully.

"I _am_!"

The woman just shook her head regretfully and waved a hand at the scissor-wielders. I could hear the scissors spread open, and anticipated the fateful collision of the two blades and the unholy aftermath. The scissors began to close slowly and I opened my mouth to scream. 

Suddenly I was being shaken. "Fi!" one of the twins giggled. "You were snoring!"

"And drooling," the other one added helpfully, but the first one fixed her with a mindful glance. "Not really," she admitted. "But you were snoring."

I couldn't say any of the words that are coming to mind as my eyes adjusted to the light and the very different surrounding in which I found myself. I settled for grunting and rolling over until the twins got the picture and went away. What the hell was going on now? Could all of that have been a dream? And if it was, did that mean I made all of it up? And if so, did that mean I was royally insane? I supposed Freud might have a field day.


	6. chapter 6

It's the idea of you, you see   
when I close my eyes it happens to me   
oh you're a nightmare and you've got it all wrong   
you're a nightmare to me   
you're a nightmare and I just can't see   
why you should keep on happening to me   
--Pulp, "You're A Nightmare"  
  
  
After the twins left, I locked my bedroom door and hesitated briefly before picking up the phone and dialing the numbers that would provide me with answers I wasn't sure I was ready to hear.  
  
"Hello?" Annie.  
  
"Hi," I said. "It's me."  
  
"Hey, Fi!" Annie greeted me brightly.  
  
"Hi, Annie," I replied cautiously. "How are you?"  
  
"Just great," she gushed. "School is great, the kids are great, your family is great, this house is great, Conrad's great--"  
  
"Okay. Look, I need you to answer some questions for me, okay?"  
  
"Wow, sure! Usually it's the other way around, isn't it?"  
  
"Ha ha, yeah. Um, okay. So. Have you been on any trips lately?"  
  
"Like drugs?" I could literally hear her eyes widen at this foreign thought. Well, it was Hope Springs. Not exactly the teenage-girls-on-drugs capital of the world. Still, her peculiar innocence was equally as grating as it might have been endearing. I plunged forward and tried to clarify it for her.  
  
"No. Like in a car."  
  
"Yeah! We went to the grocery store yesterday and I met this guy and I was checking him out and Conrad reminded me to never give up so I went over and I started talking to him but he-"  
  
"Okay. Look, this one's kind of personal. Are you seeing Clu?"  
  
"Why, has he turned, like, invisible or something? 'Cause I just saw him at breakfast a while ago. You know, I really don't know why those two are always over here for breakfast. You'd think there wasn't any food in their house."  
  
"Okay. Personal question number two. Are you seeing Jack?"  
  
"Oh my God, is he invisible too? 'Cause he was at breakfast too!"  
  
"No, no, nobody's invisible," I laughed. Thank God, or whoever was responsible for this blessed turn of events. "This is the last one, I promise. My mom hasn't been hanging around with any bikers lately, has she?"  
  
"Just Ned."  
  
"Okay." I breathed a gargantuan sigh of relief. "Tell them all I said hi, would you? I was just checking in. I'll call back later."  
  
"You could tell them yourself, they're all downstairs or-"  
  
"No, no. I've just had a really long night, so I'm gonna go take a nap. Talk to you later," I said cheerfully, and hung up.  
  
Just then someone knocked on my door, and I slowly rose to open it tentatively. Again to my great relief, it wasn't an unexpected visitor but simply Aunt Melinda.   
  
"Hey," I greeted her brightly. "What's up?"  
  
"Nothing," she replied nonchalantly. "Just checking on you, that's all."  
  
"Well, I'm good," I said. "We didn't get any late-night visitors last night, did we?"  
  
"No," she answered, more than a little surprised by the question, which I took to be a very good sign.  
  
"Excellent," I sighed.   
  
"I just--well, you know, now you're locking the door, and when the door isn't locked you're still staying up all night on the computer... I just want to make sure you really feel like this is your home here."  
  
"Oh, I do," I assured her. "Completely. I swear this is exactly how I act at home. I swear. It really is!"  
  
She laughed. "Okay, okay. I trust you. Well, if you ever worry that you aren't fitting in here, you know, I'm always available to talk."  
  
"I know," I said simply.  
  
She nodded and gave a small smile before backing out of the room, closing the door behind her.  
  
I flopped back on my bed and curled up, hoping to dream of something more mundane this time, like kittens or rainbows or something. I was just drifting off when I heard someone say: "I think she's dead." I would have screamed if I could have produced any sound at all.  
  



	7. chapter 7

"This is my happening and it fucks me up."  
--NPB

I opened my eyes. Annie was peering into my face with more curiosity than concern. "Or not."

"What happened?" Clu asked me from the backseat.

My mouth opened and closed a few times. No sound came out.

"_Nobody_ feels like talking right now," said Jack, groaning.

"No," I croaked. "Where are we? What happened to--uh, that woman, and the bikers?"

"I made them take us back to our car and I gave them their stupid money," said Annie. "She probably would have fucking killed all of us, but the bikers were happy to get their money back and she got a little distracted, so we siphoned off some gas from one of the bikes and started up the car again. Who knew the fuel gauge was fucking broken?" She glared at Clu.

"Shut the fuck up," he said. "I've paid for my ignorance."

"Oh my God, you guys, are you okay?" I suddenly remembered the scissors.

"Yeah, she came up with her brilliant idea just in time to save the parts of us she likes but not before her biker friends had the opportunity to beat the shit out of us." Jack rolled his eyes. "You could have told us," he muttered.

"Shut the fuck up," she replied, and we all did, perhaps inspired more by confusion or exhaustion than her command. When we pulled into the parking lot of a small-town supermarket 66 miles later, the boys were asleep in the back. 

"So," I started, as the first of many questions forced its way out of my head. "What happened to my mom?"

"What do you mean? Nothing. She's at home, waiting for us to come back with you."

"But wasn't that her back there?"

Annie just laughed and shook her head. "No."

"What about Carey?"

"I imagine he's hanging around your kitchen waiting to be fed or at home."

"But wasn't that him?"

She laughed again. 

"And Ned and Irene back there at the mini-mart?"

"There's a lot you just don't understand," she said in a condescending, worldly tone that pissed me off.

"So you really are who they said you were?"

"Maybe." She smiled cryptically and produced a pack of cigarettes from under the seat with a mischievous grin. "Wouldn't you like to know?" She tapped one out and lit it with a lighter that read, in very small script letters, "Cherry."

"What about your parents and Peru and all that stuff?"

"You know, Clu was right. I think Seattle did suck the fun out of you. Loosen up. Stop looking for answers. You'll never find them. And if you did, you wouldn't be able to put the pieces together anyway. Your life is still the same. I wish none of this had happened, but it did, and here we are. Speaking of where we are, come on," she said suddenly, getting out of the car. When I didn't move, she came around to my side, opened the door, and grabbed me by the hand. Annie laughed and dragged me toward the store. "I need chips and cookies and soda and pens and needles and--"

Her list was interrupted by the woman with the hyena laugh, who blocked the door to the supermarket. She let out one of those high-pitched whistles I've never been able to master and Irene walked out of the automatic door, still wearing her bloody minimart uniform, flanked by a pair of Mom's bikers. I could see dark bruises circling both of her wrists, and she looked even more crazy or angry than she had when we met before.


	8. chapter 8

hey life, look at me  
I can see the reality  
'cause when you shook me, took me, out of my world  
I woke up   
suddenly I just woke up to the happening  
--Diana Ross and The Supremes  


"All right," Irene said. "You really thought you could pull another fast one?"

"What are you talking about?" 

"We _counted_ the money," she said, stepping toward Annie.

"Well, I had to eat!" Annie protested, backing away.

"Not on our dime," Irene growled.

Annie broke into a run for the car and yelled for me to do the same, but I was frozen in place. Irene tapped one of the bikers on his tattooed arm and he let out a war whoop, producing a rocket launcher from behind his back. 

The car screeched to a start, the engine protesting against Annie's rough shifting and pedal pushing. She paused only a second to wait for me, and when I didn't come, the car began to roar out of the space and out of the parking lot. The biker fired. And the car exploded.

Irene smiled and wrapped an arm around the biker with the launcher. "Good job!" 

I just stood there, waiting for someone to wake me up now. Irene and the launcher biker began to walk back to wherever they came from. The hyena woman had simply disappeared. I figured at least I was safe now, since they didn't seem to notice I was still standing there. Until the other biker said: "Hey, what about that one?"

"What about her?"

"She saw everything."

"So? Who's she gonna tell?" Still, she unwrapped herself from the launcher biker and walked back toward me, sizing me up.

"Look, you're right, I'm not going to tell anyone, please, just--" I could feel myself flinching hard.

"Relax," she said with her hands in a surrendering position, continuing to approach me.

"I--"

"Shh." She held a "quiet" finger to her lips. I obeyed and closed my eyes, wincing in anticipation already. 

She laughed. "What are you thinking?" the other biker asked.

"Look at her," she said softly. "She's a little shorter than Cherry, but maybe"

"You're not," he objected.

"You don't think so?"

His brow furrowed as he looked at me. "I don't know, it's just--"

She held up a hand to indicate that he should stop talking without shifting her gaze from my face. Then she asked: "So, what do you say? Want a job?"

Too shocked to refuse and too apathetic to think about the consequences, I decided to let the dream progress however my subconscious thought it should. So I answered simply, "Sure."

She smiled briefly and then the smile died as she said, gravely: "Just don't _ever_ fuck us over." 

I nodded dumbly. She gestured for me to follow her and the bikers as they walked through the parking lot toward motorcycles parked around by the side of the store. She and the launcher biker mounted one, the other biker and I mounted another. As I strapped on the helmet he handed me, I wondered just why my subconscious had decided to take me on this trip. I figured it was better to think of it as a dream from which I would be awakened as I thought I had been before than to consider the ramifications of this new reality.

But my old curiosity couldn't be suppressed for long. The biker--his name was Norwood, I found out later, along with many other surprising tidbits, including a hatred for green vegetables and a sad childhood in a London orphanage--started up the machine and we were off. 

I buried my face in his back as the thoughts flooded: what if this was one of those alternate dimensions Annie was prattling on about a few months ago? Or what if the Nexus had somehow split open and swallowed us all into this nightmarish hell-world? Or what if they had all been exposed to some kind of poisoned vegetable that made them discover their true personalities? Or what if it was another one of those weird shared dreams? Or what if my whole life was just a dream? Or what if oh, to hell with it. 

I opened my eyes and concentrated on enjoying the ride. What else could I do? There would be never be enough answers for all my questions, unless I really did wake up again. But maybe this could be fun. Maybe it was time for a change. Annie had certainly seemed to relish the opportunity to let that other side of her come out. Maybe it was my turn to have some fun...


End file.
